


How To Deal With A Dweller

by Susumu



Series: The Many Adventures Of Kigurumi Kid [1]
Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:55:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23127382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Susumu/pseuds/Susumu
Summary: CK gets a call from K's ship, only to find out that she wasn't the one to issue the call. She then has an unfortunate run-in with Snatcher and finds out what really happened to K.
Series: The Many Adventures Of Kigurumi Kid [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1662427
Kudos: 4





	How To Deal With A Dweller

**Author's Note:**

> This work is part of an AHIT AU that is VERY OC-centered, and focuses on two alternate universe hat kids, known as Kigurumi Kid and Cooking Kid. Also, I try to keep the canon cast as in-character as possible, so I apologize if I portray anyone differently than you would!

While CK was normally a peaceful girl, at the moment she was tearing a path through Subcon Forest. She had gotten a call from her friend K's ship telling her to come here, but it wasn't K herself who had called. Actually, the call was from her Subconite friend, Sandwich, telling CK to come here because something had happened to K. And so here she was, searching for the person who had hurt her friend.

When she showed up to where K's ship was, though, there wasn't really anyone there. Well, aside from K herself and Sandwich, that is. Something was weird about K, though. She was sitting on the ground, and her had her head down. Was she okay? The Subconite boy looked over and noticed that CK was here. "Hey, you're here!" he greeted her. "Um, something happened to K, and I don't know what to do."

"Yeah, I heard," CK answered. "What's going on? Did someone do something to her?" Keeping her friends safe meant a lot to her, and she was willing to fight someone if she had to...

"Um, no!" Sandwich answered. "I don't think anyone hurt her. Um, actually, I don't know what happened. You might want to come and look at this." He then led CK over to where K was sitting. When K heard them approach, she picked her head up. She didn't speak a word to them, but that wasn't the only unusual thing. She also seemed to be wearing one of those masks the Dwellers always carried around. That was weird. K had one of these sorts of masks herself, but hers was different. It only went over her eyes, and she only wore it around Subcon.

CK waved a bit awkwardly to her friend. "Uh, K?" she asked, giving a strange smile. "You're alright, aren't you?" Of course, K said nothing in response. She just stared at CK for a moment before putting her head back down. CK then turned back to the Subconite boy. "Uh, okay. That was weird. S, what even happened to her?"

Sandwich tilted his head. "Uh, I don't know," he answered. "She was talking about how sad the Dwellers seemed all the time. Then she walked up to one of them. Suddenly the Dweller disappeared and uh... Its mask got stuck to K's face. Now she's acting weird."

"Okay, so..." CK stopped to think for a second. "All we have to do is get that mask off her face, right?" But how were they going to do that? Maybe the Dweller was stuck in there too. What if they ended up hurting them? "Uh, I don't want to hurt the Dweller or K..."

Sandwich had an idea right away. "We could try scaring the Dweller away!" he suggested. He didn't say that out of wanting to be mean. Trying to be scary was all he knew. By the look on CK's face, though, he could tell she didn't want to do that. "Uh, okay. Do you have any ideas?"

Well, CK could try using words to solve this. That's what she was taught to do on her planet. She turned back over to K. "Hey, K?" she tried to talk to her again. "We want to help you but we don't know how. Could you try taking that mask off for us?"

However, K only seemed to react badly over this. She still remained silent, but she began burying her hands further into her arms, shivering in what seemed to be terror. Okay, so that was the wrong thing to say. At this point, though, CK felt like she was out of options. What else could they do?

Well, CK might have been out of ideas, but Sandwich wasn't. In fact, he'd just come up with a new one. He quickly grabbed K and CK by their hands, bringing K up to her feet, and began to run with both of them. "Hey, I know!" he exclaimed. "Let's go see the boss! He'll know what to do!" CK had no idea who he was talking about, but K seemed to know all too well. 'The boss'. That was how she'd often hear Subconites refer to HIM. She tried to pull away from Sandwich and cover her face again.

CK seemed worried by this. She wasn't exactly happy about seeing Snatcher either, but this is what they had to do, wasn't it? "K, come on," she tried to assure her friend, grabbing her other hand. "It'll be alright. I know you're scared, but if anything's wrong maybe he can figure it out."

Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you saw it, Snatcher was still in his "house" at the moment. It wasn't long before he caught sight of three small figures running towards him. Oh, it was one of the Subconites, wasn't it? His look of curiousity turned into a disdainful frown, however, when he saw there was someone else with them. Yeah, he recognized the kid with the bear hat, but... Wonderful. She brought ANOTHER one along. As the Subconite got closer, he started calling out something. "Hey, boss! We've got a problem!"

"I should say that we do," Snatcher mumbled, more to himself than anything. He stood up out of his chair, now looming above the three smaller figures. "And just what do you think you're doing in my forest?" he asked, looking directly at CK.

Was this the shadow guy K had told CK so much about? He was... MUCH taller than she had expected. And a lot scarier too. She didn't think shadow could have been this bad. "U-uh..." How was she even supposed to approach this? She couldn't think of any of her usual remarks. "It's... It's my friend. She's been acting reallt weird lately, and I don't know why... S said you could help us, but..." Yeah, like there was any chance of him helping them, according to what K had said.

The annoyance quickly faded from Snatcher's face. This pink-haired girl was friends with the bear hat kid? And judging by the way she was acting, she was just as afraid of him as her friend was. "Oh, I get it!" he declared, trying and failing to hide the amusement in his voice. "Your little friend over there has gotten herself into a terrible situation, hasn't she? Let me see if there's anything I can do about it, though I can't guarantee she'll live." He then scooped up K, who seemed very unhappy about it.

It wasn't hard for Snatcher to tell what exactly had happened to K. She was strangely silent despite clearly being frightened, and had a Dweller's mask stuck to her face. Of course, the kid just had to go and get herself possessed, didn't she? It would be easy for him to help with this... But if he was to be honest, he didn't exactly WANT to. He couldn't admit that to CK, of course, so he just put on his best dramatic voice. "This poor kid! She's got it worse than I thought! I'm afraid there's nothing I can do to save her." Against his better judgement, he gave CK a fake-sympathetic pat on the head.

CK's eyes widened at the sound of that. "What do you mean nothing?!" she demanded. "You mean K's gonna be stuck like this forever?!" CK looked up at her friend again. "But that means she'll never act like herself again!"

Suddenly, Snatcher's face dropped once more. As much as he hated to admit it, CK was right. Dwellers didn't cry and scream in the same way K did. Tormenting them just wasn't any fun. He picked up K once more, quickly pulling the mask off of her face. "Well, what do you know?" He remarked, watching the Dweller fly off in a panic as he placed K back down. "Looks like the kid lived after all."

"Waaahh!" K suddenly got to her feet after a few seconds, hiding behind the nearest tree root. "What am I doing here?! What is HE doing here?! What happened to that Dweller?!"

CK quickly ran over to K. "K! You're alright!" she exclaimed, giving her friend a hug and still trying not to cry. "Hey, hey! Don't be so scared! Something bad happened to you, but you're okay now!"

K just hugged her friend. She had no idea what just happened to her, but it felt horrible. "Whatever that was, don't ever let that happen to me again!"

Snatcher's expression turned to one of bitter disdain once again. He couldn't stand even the sight of these syrupy displays of friendship. "Really, that's... That's just terrific," he snapped, frightening the two girls. "Don't bother thanking me. Now if you're both finished here, stop doing... THAT and get out of my sight before I toss both of you down the well and leave your souls there."

K and CK took that as their sign to get out of there. CK would have given some sort of sassy remark before she went running, but she was too scared to say anything. Instead, she just took off, not far behind K. Sandwich turned around to follow the two of them. "Wait for me, you guys!"

Snatcher sighed as he watched the kids run off, sinking back into his chair. Well, that was fun while it lasted. Hopefully he wouldn't have to see them again, though a part of him wished he would. If that pink-haired girl was as fun to mess with as that bear-hat girl, maybe them coming back would be worth it.


End file.
